BEVERLY HILLS, March 07, (THEWILL) – This may not be the best of times for the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-West geo-political zone. The reason for this is not far fetched, almost all the state chapters of the party is in one crisis or the other, while the struggle for the soul of the zone has also polarised the party into two factions. Ogun, Lagos, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun state chapters are having hiccups.
Unfortunately for the party, it lost the Ondo State governorship election last October to the All Progressives Congress. Next year, Ekiti and Osun states will have their governorship elections. PDP traditionally is a strong force in the two states. But the party is neck-deep in crisis and political analysts and watchers of political events are watching keenly to see if the party can resolve its crisis and bounce back before the two elections.
In Ogun State, there are two camps, the late Buruji Kashamu group and Hon. Ladi Adebutu camp. Although the Kashamu group is disintegrated due to the death of their financier, some of them are still holding their feet and there is, therefore, mutual suspicion between the two factions. All efforts to unite the two factional groups has not yielded good fruit.
In Lagos, the executive members and the Party’s state chairman, Engr. Deji Doherty are at loggerhead. At the height of the crisis in the state, the other executive members ganged up against Doherty and suspended him not only from his position as chairman but from the main opposition party, the PDP. His suspension was announced last year by the State Secretary, Mr Muiz Dosunmu after an executive meeting.
In Ondo, some members who recently visited the former governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose who is currently at dagger drawn with the Governor of Oyo State, Engr. Seyi Makinde as to who is the leader of the party in the zone were suspended recently by the state executive.
Those suspended for an ‘unholy visit’ to Fayose are former PDP chairman in Ondo, Chief Ebenezer Alabi, Lad Lajomo, Oyedele Ibini, former lawmaker, Rasheed Elegbeleye and former State Publicity Secretary, Ayo Fadaka. Thus as of today, there is no 100 per cent peace in Ondo PDP.
In Osun State, two men are laying claim to the chairmanship of the party. The chairman of the party, Soji Adagunodo was removed following a vote of no confidence passed on him by the other executive members and their decision was ratified by the National Working Committee, (NWC) which suspended Adagunodo.
The new chairman, Sunday Bisi is backed by NWC but Adagunodo is in court and he got a judgement from the State High Court in Ikirun which reinstated him back to his position as chairman. So in Osun, Adagunodo and Bisi are laying claim to Chairmanship of the PDP.
In Ekiti State, there are also two factional chairmen for the party. While Ayodele Fayose’s faction has Bisi Kolawole as Chairman, Senator Biodun Olujinmi’s faction produced Kehinde Odebunmi as the State Chairman.
At the regional level, the situation is not better. There are two belligerent groups, one led by Mr Fayose and the other is being led by Engr. Seyi Makinde. The two factions are maintaining a hard stance.
Fayose and Makinde are entangled in a superiority battle as to who is the leader of the party in the region. While PDP leaders in the region are backing Makinde, Fayose is being supported by the party chairmen in Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti among others.
The leaders’ support for Makinde, according to information gathered by TheWill is derived from the party’s convention that a governor is the leader of the party in a state and if there is only one governor in a zone or region, automatically he becomes the leader. Makinde is the only PDP governor in the South West and so by the party’s convention, he is the leader.
But Fayose will not want to hear anything like that. To him, he is Makinde’s senior, having been governor before him and so he should be the South-West PDP leader.
Political analysts surprisingly could not fathom out while Fayose who has benefitted from the same position as the only governor and leader in the region will oppose Makinde’s leadership.
An investigation by TheWill however revealed that there were some underlying factors that led to the hard positions being taken by Fayose and Makinde.
How the crisis started
The crisis started in August last year during the various State Congresses of the party. In Ekiti where Fayose hails from, there are two factions, two State Congresses were also held which led to the parallel executive of the party in the state.
The faction led by Fayose produced Hon. Bisi Kolawole as the state chairman, while the other group led by Senator Abiodun Olujimi, has Hon Kehinde Odebunmi as the state chairman. Olujimi is the Senator representing Ekiti South and the Senate Minority Leader.
While the National Working Committee of the party in a purported letter supported and agreed that Bisi Kolawole from the Fayose faction is the authentic chairman, Makinde seems to differand romance Olujimi’s faction. Thus, a crisis began with Fayose saying that Makinde can only be a leader in Oyo State and not in Ekiti.
Also, while Fayose favoured the retention of Eddy Olafeso – led South West executive of the party in the region, Makinde favoured the retention of the caretaker committee. Thus crisis erupted and Fayose started attacking the elders that backed Makinde.
At the height of the crisis, youth members of the party attacked Fayose at the Grand finale campaign for the 2020 Ondo Governorship Election in Ondo town last October. The youths who openly assaulted Fayose accused him of openly ridiculing Makinde who they said is the leader of the party. It took the intervention of Makinde and the elders of the party to rescue Fayose from further assault at the campaign ground.
The underlying factor is that Fayose believes if he controls the state executive of the party in Ekiti and the regional executive he will have easy way in selecting who will be PDP Governorship candidate in Ekiti in 2022. He therefore sees Makinde as a stumbling block in his effort to produce the governorship candidate of the party in next year’s election in Ekiti State.
Preparation for Zonal Congress
The two zonal factions have produced their candidates for the zonal Congress initially fixed for Saturday, March 6, 2021 in Ibadan, Oyo State capital.
The South West Vice Chairmanship candidate for Makinde’s faction is former Deputy Governor of Oyo State and former Ambassador to Jordan, Taofeek Arapaja while that of Fayose’s group is Eddy Olafeso, who was the immediate past South-West Vice-Chairman.
It was however gathered that the Fayose group or faction is not comfortable with Ibadan as the venue of the Congress and so some members of his group went to court to seek the postponement of the Congress.
Penultimate Thursday, Makinde accused the National Legal Adviser of the party of supporting a court case trying to postpone the South West Zonal Congress of the party. He called the National executive of the party to call the legal adviser to order.
But despite the opposition of Makinde to any postponement not the Congress, last Monday in a release signed by its National Organising Secretary, Col. Austin Akobundu (Rtd) the PDP said the tenures of Zonal Caretaker Committees for South-West, North-Central and North-West have been extended for another period of 30 days.
Speaking with The Will, a Public Affairs commentator based in Ibadan, Mr Bayo Fatimehin said if the party wants to achieve success in next year’s governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun, it should embrace peace on time.
“The two states are currently under the control of the APC. Though PDP is also strong in the two states having governed the states before but if this crisis linger than necessary they should forget it”.
The question on the lips of political analysts and watchers of political developments in the country is whether PDP can resolve its crisis on time to be able to do well in the 2022 governorship elections.
Answering the question, the Chairman, South-West Peoples Democratic Party Reconciliation Committee, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, has assured that his committee has the wherewithal to address the problems confronting the party in all the state chapters of the party in South West and bring about peace and unity to the fold.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
